Psychodynamic explanations of gender development

Question 1

What is the Oedpius complex?

Answer 1

occurs during the phallic stage of development where a boy wishes his father dead because they are rivals of their mothers love. Proposed in 1905

Question 2

What is the first stage of the oedipus complex?

Answer 2

• boys desire their mothers around age three or four
• this is a period where a young boy becomes aware of his sexuality and desires his mother, wanting his sole attention

Question 3

what is the second stage of the oedipus complex?

Answer 3

• boys see their father as a rival for their mothers love and wish them dead
• this wish creates anxiety and a fear of castration
• such fears are repressed

Question 4

what is the final stage of the oedipus complex?

Answer 4

• the complex is eventually resolved because the boy begins to identify with his father. It is through identification that a boy internalises his father’s gender identity and takes this as his own
• this gender identity and identification leads to masculine behaviours as young boys take on the attitudes and expectations of their fathers

Question 5

what is the electra complex?

Answer 5

occurs during the phallic stage of development where a girl blames her mother for a lack of a penis (penis envy) but eventually resolves this through her wish to have a baby. It was proposed by Carl Jung in 1913

Question 6

what is the first stage of the electra complex?

Answer 6

• a young girl is initially attracted to her mother but this ends when the girl discovers that her mother does not have a penis
• The girl blames her mother for her own lack of penis, believing she was castrated and so as result suffers from penis envy

Question 7

what happens in the second stage of the electra complex?

Answer 7

• The girl’s sexual desires are transferred to her father

Question 8

what happens in the third stage of the electra complex?

Answer 8

• the complex is resolved when the girl converts her penis envy to a wish to have a baby, and this reduces her anger towards her mother.
• The girl can now identify with her mother and take on gender behaviours

Question 9

what does the unresolved phallic stage result in?

Answer 9

• a phallic character who is afraid of/incapable of close love
• Freud believed it could lead to homosexuality and amoral behaviour